Over the years, it has become a common practice to connect to a single electrical circuit a number of different devices to be powered thereby. While circuits designed and wired for heavier loads, including heating, cooling, heavy machine usage, and other devices or systems are common, for safety and other reasons most circuits intended for general everyday use in residences and businesses are designed and wired for lesser loading. All of such electrical circuits are typically protected by fuses or circuit breakers or other devices or systems, hereinafter referred to generically as circuit breakers, that limit to a specified amount the amount of current that can be drawn by all of the connected devices as they are operating. Most of the circuits intended for general use in residences and businesses are protected by 15 or 20 amp circuit breakers that trip when the current draw exceeds the specified value.
Typically, residents and businesses will connect to any given circuit a plurality of devices that, operating together, do not draw excessive current as they operate. However, some household or business devices may be such that they have highly variable current draws during their operation, including especially a number of beverage, including coffee, brewers, increasing the possibility, if not the likelihood, that excessive current draws may occasionally be attempted when a brewer attempts to operate during a high power portion of its operation.
Many such coffee brewers have high power demands for a limited portion of their operation, and much lower power demands for other portions of their operation. Typically, at the beginning of a brewing cycle a coffee brewer may require high power, such as 1200-1700 watts (10-14.5 amps) of power, to facilitate heating water in a tank heater as fast as possible, while the power required at other times may be much lower. Typically, the current draw required during the lower power portions of such brew cycles totals only about 0.5-1.5 amps for demands related to brewer controls, brewer displays, water fill components, and, possibly, a low wattage warmer element.
Coffee brewers typically may include a brewer control board that is connectable to an electrical circuit and which, when so connected, more or less continuously draws a low current in order to operably monitor and control the brewer's operation, including determining when to effect the rapid heating of water in the water tank. In general, such control boards are also designed to effect high current draws required for water heating for limited periods near the beginnings of the brewers' operating cycles and by sensing temperature to control when to turn such heating on and off.
If the total current draw on a given 15 amp electrical circuit to which a coffee brewer is connected exceeds 15 amps at any time during the operational cycle of the connected brewer, the circuit breaker for such circuit will trip, thereby depriving not only such connected brewer on that electrical circuit, but also other devices on such electrical circuit, of the electrical power that they require to operate. Such a result is at least annoying to users, requiring resetting of the circuit breaker and, perhaps, staged use and/or operation of the various devices connected to such electrical circuit, and may be injurious to certain devices and troubling to users.
Some users, especially users who may find their access to available electrical circuits limited and/or who wish to employ devices that experience only occasional high current draws, with most power requirements for such devices being at a much lower level, may connect multiple devices, including several devices with occasional high current draws, to the same circuit, but manually and judiciously monitor devices that are actively drawing current at given times to try to ensure that the total current draw remains below the specified circuit breaker rating. In such regard, a user who has a toaster and a coffee brewer connected to the same circuit may ensure that he/she does not attempt to use the toaster during the water tank heating portion of a coffee brewer operation. Invariably, however, some user will occasionally neglect proper monitoring, and the attempted uses of such devices at the same time will result in excessive current draw.
Such situations are often further exacerbated in business or corporate environments where there may be a need for multiple coffee brewers, and attempts may be made to include several brewers on the same electrical circuit. If all the brewers are operating in low power portions of their operation, the total current draw my be within the circuit rating, even if there are additional electrical devices connected to such circuit. Dependent upon a number of variables, including the exact current draw of a particular coffee brewer during its high power portion of operation, the total current draw on the given electrical circuit may still remain within circuit ratings, but if any other device, including a second coffee brewer connected to the same circuit, attempts to operate in a high power mode at the same time, it is probable that an excessive current draw situation will transpire and that the circuit breaker will trip.
Consequently, the connection to a common circuit of multiple devices that have occasional high current draws during their operational cycles has remained problematic.